Read Online Ice Cold: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel by Tess Gerritsen - Free Book Online Page A

said so to his face.
    “She hasn’t been answering her cell phone,” he said. “I’m concerned.”
    “Maybe she’s just not taking calls.”
Your calls
was what she thought.
    “I’ve left half a dozen voice mails. I just wondered if you’ve been able to reach her.”
    “I haven’t tried.”
    “I want to be sure she’s all right.”
    “She’s attending a conference, isn’t she? Maybe she turned off her phone.”
    “So you don’t know where she is.”
    “I thought it was somewhere out in Wyoming.”
    “Yes, I know where she’s supposed to be.”
    “Have you tried calling her hotel?”
    “That’s just it. She checked out this morning.”
    Jane turned as the storage unit door opened again and the medical examiner ducked inside. “I’m kind of busy at the moment,” she said to Brophy.
    “She wasn’t supposed to check out until tomorrow.”
    “So she changed her mind. She made other plans.”
    “She didn’t tell me. What worries me is that I can’t reach her.”
    Jane waved at the ME, who squeezed through the mountains of furniture and joined Frost at the freezer. Impatient to get back to work, she said bluntly: “Maybe she doesn’t want to be reached. Have you considered the possibility that she might need time alone?”
    He was silent.
    It had been a cruel question, and she was sorry she’d asked it. “You do know,” she said more gently, “it’s been hard for her this year.”
    “I know.”
    “You hold all the cards, Daniel. It’s all about your decision, your choice.”
    “Do you think that makes it easier for me, knowing that I’m the one who has to choose?”
    She heard his pain and thought: Why do people do this to themselves? How do two intelligent and decent human beings trap themselves in such misery? She’d predicted months ago that it would come to this, that after the hormones faded and the luster was off their shiny new affair, they’d be left with regret as their bitter companion.
    “I just want to be sure she’s all right,” he said. “I wouldn’t have bothered you if I wasn’t worried.”
    “I don’t keep track of her whereabouts.”
    “But could you check on her for me?”
    “How?”
    “Call her. Maybe you’re right, maybe she’s just screening my calls. Our last conversation wasn’t …” He paused. “It could have ended on a better note.”
    “You argued?”
    “No. But I disappointed her. I know that.”
    “That could make her not return your calls.”
    “Still, it’s not like her to be unreachable.”
    On that point he was right. Maura was too conscientious to be out of touch for long. “I’ll give her a call,” Jane said, and hung up, grateful that her own life was so settled. No tears, no drama, no crazy highs and lows. Just the happy assurance that at that moment, her husband and daughter were at home waiting for her. All around her, it seemed, romantic turmoil was destroying people’s lives. Her father had left her mother for another woman. Barry Frost’s marriage had recently collapsed. No one was behaving the way they used to, the way they should. As she dialed Maura’s cell phone, she wondered: Am I the only one around here who’s still sane?
    It rang four times, then she heard the recording: “This is Dr. Isles. I’m not available right now, but if you leave a message, I’ll return your call as soon as possible.”
    “Hey, Doc, we’re wondering where you are,” said Jane. “Give me a call, okay?” She disconnected and stared down at her cell phone, thinking of all the reasons why Maura hadn’t answered. Out of range. Dead battery. Or maybe she was having too good a time in Wyoming, away from Daniel Brophy. Away from her job, with all the reminders of death and decay.
    “Everything okay?” Frost called out.
    Jane slipped the phone in her pocket and looked at him. “Yeah,” she said. “I’m sure it’s fine.”

S O WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENED HERE?” SAID E LAINE, HER VOICE faintly slurred from drinking too much